What’s a grad student worth?

I have a post up today on Tenure, She Wrote about structural financial barriers in academia for chronically ill graduate students.

If a worker is less productive, should they be paid less? This is not an abstract question for me.

As a sick graduate student, I take longer to produce academic products like papers and degrees than the average well graduate student. Instead of the 4-5 years expected for a PhD student here, I’ll likely take 6-7 years. Additionally, my living expenses are higher because of my illness; despite living in a country with socialized medicine, I still have thousands and thousands of dollars a year in uncovered medical expenses.

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